Thank you for this. I'm really not familiar with Philo's work, and may need to remedy that at some point.
As to Philo's authorities (as cited by Nock, cited by you, etc.,--what a crazy telephone game!): Hesiod is an interesting choice, given what we might call the more "mythological" rather than "philosophical" register in which he's writing. As to Plato's Timaeus, that's precisely what's at issue in all the dueling commentaries and treatises "On the Eternity of the World" put out by various thinkers over the centuries.
I can totally see Moses (and the dialogue with Noah) as taking this position; but while it's well-attested that Moses spoke both Egyptian and Hebrew, I'd not put him in the group of Greek-speakers. :) Joking aside, I think this actually illustrates the point: Hesiod notwithstanding, what we're looking at is a confrontation between the Hellenic worldview (of an eternal and/or cyclic cosmos) and the Semitic one (as picked up by the Galileans).
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Date: 2022-02-23 11:41 pm (UTC)As to Philo's authorities (as cited by Nock, cited by you, etc.,--what a crazy telephone game!): Hesiod is an interesting choice, given what we might call the more "mythological" rather than "philosophical" register in which he's writing. As to Plato's Timaeus, that's precisely what's at issue in all the dueling commentaries and treatises "On the Eternity of the World" put out by various thinkers over the centuries.
I can totally see Moses (and the dialogue with Noah) as taking this position; but while it's well-attested that Moses spoke both Egyptian and Hebrew, I'd not put him in the group of Greek-speakers. :) Joking aside, I think this actually illustrates the point: Hesiod notwithstanding, what we're looking at is a confrontation between the Hellenic worldview (of an eternal and/or cyclic cosmos) and the Semitic one (as picked up by the Galileans).